Nectarines just better

Yes, indirectly though. I got scions from another forum member.

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BTW, the white nect I was talking about is Jade. Quite large for a highly flavored early white. Maybe I was wrong about the French connection. ACN no longer carries it for some reason. I should think its size would be advantageous for commercial production, although it makes it more prone to cracking when it rains as itā€™s ripening. Iā€™m certainly keeping mine in spite of the cracking. Although ACN says itā€™s a tad earlier, it ripens a couple of days later than Silver Gem at my site. Their ripening chart is not entirely reliable- at least as it applies here, but I expect everywhere. They still havenā€™t figured out that Valor is a late plum- maybe because they havenā€™t sorted out the issue with their fake Valor.

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My first year Arctic Jay. Everyone in my family likes them. They are sweet, white nectarines.

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They look beautiful. I think fruit quality tends towards high this year, at least so far. I donā€™t have any stonefruit but my earliest Honeycrisp apples have been excellent. The brix must be around 15 which is the point at which they become delicious.

I just wish I didnā€™t have to kill 10 bushels of squirrels for every bushel of apples.

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Amen to that. I had a break for a few weeks but a new wave showed up recently. I am getting about 20% of my fruit this year.

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Yup, a juvenile just jumped out of my JonagoldXHoneycrisp tree and dropped a small HC as it made itā€™s getaway. I had ignored the sunflower seed and peanut baited trap below the tree. Now I have to patrol the tree with my shotgun when Iā€™m home and do my very convincing Elmer Fudd impersonation.

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@alan

Does that mean you have bullet (pellet) proof fruit.:blush::blush:

Mike

Actually, I could have shot the sucker thrice but didnā€™t want to shoot the tree. I believe it finally went into the trap yesterday, along with another mature one. They are now in a better place- a foxā€™s stomach.

@alan,
Finally, I got a nectarine that fits the headline of this thread.

These are Freckle Face, a Burchell yellow nectarine. I believe the deep yellow marks on top of the fruit are called ā€œfireā€, according to @Olpea. They taste very good, very sweet with some tartness in it.

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They look great! I am starting to become a fan of Burchell! On a scale of 1-10 (1 is least tart), how do you rate its tartness and that of Arctic Jay?

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This is very subjective. I got my daughter and hubby to join
in the experiment.

Tartness in fully ripened: Arctic Jay 0/1, Freckle Face anywhere from 3-5.

Not fully ripe, Arctic Jay 2/3, Freckle Face 5/6.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

I think Iā€™ve finally got a handle on them, or sufficient numbers have already starved. Iā€™ve only killed one in the last 3 days. It went into the trap in the eve. and was dead in the morning. Odd?

My latest nectarine, September Free. It is a potted tree. The first two fruit just fell. They are on a smaller size for a nectarine. They have beautiful deep red skin (even with Clemson bags) and deep yellow, almost orange flesh.

The taste was sweet, low acid but not very juicy. Brix mesured at 21. It was not as good as my Freckle Face nectarine but quite good overall. It has a potential to be as good as Freckle Face if planted in ground.

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Taste-wise, my potted nectarines were superb, and way better than the same varieties when in the ground.

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Mine potted ones also produced smaller fruit.

My guess is with potted trees, you can control water which would result in sweeter fruit. My watering is not that consistent so the result varies.

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Not just via the spigot but by the natural root controlling affect of pots. I suspect thereā€™s a reason that in the old days orchardists engaged in root pruning.

A man worked for me for several years that had worked a decade for a commercial grower before I hired him told me a story once I still think about. His boss used to sell quite a few trees to landscapers and once when a tree spade hit a huge rock the operator had to abandon extracting a Fuji apple after severing most of its roots.

My helper and other workers flocked to that tree during harvest to take their own apples because the fruit was much more highly flavored than any other Fujis in that orchard.

Iā€™ve never gotten brave enough to attempt the practice in my own orchard.

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Could you tell me more about your potted trees? Which varieties do better in pots? How tall do you allow them to grow? How do you fertilize/water them? I have a selection of trees on Citation and Myro, in pots ranging 10-20 gallon size. I use 511 or similar mix, fertilized with Espoma or Osmocote.

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I had three nectarines in 25 gal pots; Honey Blaze, Zephyr and Arctic Star. All tasted amazing, but the trees didnā€™t grow much and fruit size was a third of those in ground, so I moved them all to the ground. I did it as an experiment to be able to control water. I donā€™t advise planting in pots because of the above drawbacks.

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Thanks for feedback. I also see limited growth on 2 nects (on Citation) in 15 gal pots, but lots of buds. Oddly, my older peaches in ground have few buds. I have more nects on Lovell from ACN arriving in spring, just gotta make room.